Everybody desires to retire early and retire rich. Retiring does not mean that you will not be working; it just means that you will not have to work. You can retire but continue working.

Retirement means that you get income even as you sleep. It means that you do not have to work to survive.

It is sad to report that very few people afford to retire early. Most people work until the government tells them it is time to retire. They retire old and broke. They have to depend on pension and other transfer schemes to survive.

Of course, this does not have to be you. If you follow these steps faithfully, you will retire young and rich.

I am planning to retire before I turn 30 years. This is why I am putting my house in order. I have been following these steps from a young age and I can attest that they work. Start following them today and you will retire in 5-10 years.

1. Desire to retire early and rich

This is the foundational step in this endeavor. You must develop a strong desire to be different from the masses. You do not have to work until you are old.

You can retire early and do what you love at any time. You can retire in 10 years and tour the world. It is possible. You just need to desire. A strong emotional desire will create enough push pressure for you to go out of your way to make it happen.

2. Be strategic

After developing the desire, you need to start having a long term perspective of your life. Develop some strong long term goals and a strategic plan on how to achieve them. Everything you do should aim at taking you closer to the goal.

Many people focus on the next day and the next month. They work to pay bills and buy luxuries. The main goal of most people is to pay rent, eat, and take their kids to school. Everything is about bills.

 Successful people focus on things that matter. They focus on what has the capability of giving them financial freedom. Bills only take away money from your pocket. You cannot work to finance a liability.

3. Have financial intelligence

If you need to retire early and retire rich, you need to sharpen your financial IQ. If you make money without having financial intelligence, you will lose it. This is what happens to rotary winners.

You need to read books and articles on financial intelligence. On this platform, we have great materials that can help you sharpen your financial IQ. Check them out in the personal finance category.

4. Start a business

This is the vehicle that will help you retire early and retire rich. It is the business that will become a financial magnet to transfer wealth to you over time. It will become a perpetual money-making system.

No one gets rich by remaining an employee. All wealthy people are business owners. The wealthiest politicians have businesses, the wealthiest sportsmen have businesses. Even the wealthiest employees are business owners.

You can start as an employee but you cannot remain an employee forever. If you remain an employee forever, you will die poor and miserable. Start a business and dedicate a percentage of your salary to growing the business. You can employ someone and pay them from your salary.

When the business is big enough to pay you, resign, and focus on the business. Even if you do not implement anything else in this article, just try this one out. We have numerous articles on the same. Go to the entrepreneurship category and increase your business acumen.

5. Focus on the asset column

Many people focus on income rather than the asset column. This is the worst mistake the middle class makes.

A huge income does not mean that you are wealthy. It just means that you have a good opportunity to become wealthy. The question is, do you own the source of that income? Successful people are owners.

You may make money playing a sport, win a lottery, get a promotion at work, get a tender, etc. but that does not mean that you are wealthy.

You need to take the revenue and use it to buy assets. You can buy real estate, stocks, precious metals, etc. These assets make you wealthy. Look out on our article on understanding assets.

6. Have multiple sources of income (MSIs)

This is a good way to get financial freedom and security. You need to have many income sources. These incomes should not be earned income but portfolio or passive income. Read our article on the three classifications of income to understand it better.

Have some sources of income that give you money to pay bills and buy luxuries. The rest of the sources should be used to grow your asset column. Check out our article on the 7 sources of income.

7. Do not specialize

Many people become poor because of overspecialization. If you want to retire early and rich, you need to be a generalist and not a specialist. The more you specialize, the harder it becomes to retire and focus on something else.

I am not saying that it is bad to get higher education; it is recommendable. However, you need to get balanced. You need to have knowledge in many areas to be able to grow wealthy and retire early.

You cannot just specialize in physics or human resource; you need to know more in many areas. You need to have accounting basics, marketing, sales, communication, psychology, law, social media, etc.

This is the balance that makes people wealthy. The more you specialize, the more you get trapped and the less you know about other useful areas. Read my book on The Curse of Formal Education to understand more about this.

Conclusion

It is very possible to retire early and rich. It is a joy to do so. Young success is very sweet. Old success is boring and normal. Make a decision today to retire in the next 10 years and start working towards it.

You may have to make some major changes in your life but it is necessary. You may have to change your mindset and develop new habits that are in line with your new goal. All the best in this pursuit.